speaker, leader pelosi, mrs. bush, leader reed, leader mcconnell, secretary of state hillary clinton and my colleagues in government, this is a special day to honor a special person in a special place. for many years, i have followed the tragedies and victories of this uncommonly courageous and persistent woman. in 1988, she quickly rose to be the voice of democracy in burma, creating the national league for democracy. elections followed in 1990, where her party won 80% of the seats. that joy quickly turned to tragedy. the military junta nullified the election and arrested aung san suu kyi. she would spend the better part of two decades under house arrest, unable even to visit her dying husband. in 1996, i recall being approached to sponsor a burma sanctions bill. sanctions were put in place in 1997 andsanctions were only loosened in july of this year. senator mcconnell later became one of aung san suu kyi's chief advocates in the senate and we continued to work on behalf of the people in burma. in 2003, followin